ASSÉ leaders' suggestion for a 'strategic withdrawal' angers some students

A suggestion from the leaders of the province's most militant student association to consider a "strategic withdrawal" from the student mobilization now has sparked a huge rift in the student movement.

A suggestion from the leaders of the province’s most militant student association to consider a “strategic withdrawal” from the student mobilization now, in order to get the trade unions on board for this fall, has sparked a huge rift in the student movement.

The proposition was put forward by the executive committee of ASSÉ to be discussed by member associations at its congress this weekend — but it is considered heresy by many students who have been boycotting classes to fight what they have labelled “austerity measures” by the Liberal government.

It calls into question the success of the latest student mobilization, despite the appearance of gaining steam, by saying it’s “strongly improbable” that the strike would survive the summer and continue this fall.

“If we are going to throw ourselves into an unlimited general strike, we have to be certain we have a possibility of winning,” it says, concluding that not renewing strike mandates this spring wouldn’t be a failure, but a “strategic withdrawal” that would bring them closer to victory.

“We strongly disagree with this suggestion,” said Brice Dansereau-Olivier, an organizer for the Comité Printemps 2015 which has been co-ordinating this spring’s growing strike movement. “There is no reason to abort the movement.”

He said it’s a proposal that doesn’t take into consideration the fact that there are almost 60,000 students on strike for two weeks and more than 100,000 set to strike this Thursday when a major protest against austerity measures takes place in Montreal.

“By calling for the end of the strike under the pretext of strategic retreat, the executive seeks to muzzle a base that moves more and more to escape its grip,” the committee wrote in response to the ASSÉ proposal. It also questions the logic of abandoning a strike to curry favour with unions that didn’t support students in the Maple Spring of 2012, are opposed to illegal strikes and haven’t opposed hydrocarbon development.

“Will we put our political destiny in the hands of union leaders?” it asked.

Dansereau-Olivier said this idea has been raised by ASSÉ before and has been rejected by its member associations and now it has sparked calls to revoke the mandates of ASSÉ’s executive committee.

What’s clearer than ever is that the province’s students are far from united. In addition to this latest division, a major clash has threatened the viability of the province’s largest student association, the FEUQ, which just lost 40,000 members after students from the Université de Montréal’s FAÉCUM said they were unhappy with their representation and voted to disaffiliate.

The leaked ASSÉ document, titled “Texts of reflection,” has been damaging to the movement because it raises the question about how successful the strike has been and how many student associations will realistically vote to continue it past April 7. Also, said Dansereau-Olivier, it has been perceived as a decision rather than what it was intended to be, which is a proposal to encourage a debate on strategy.

Considering that about half of ASSÉ’s 80,000 members have voted to strike, he said the document risks “making students feel like everything they have done is for nothing, when, in fact, the mobilization has been going super well.”

ASSÉ spokesperson Camille Godbout said the text was merely intended to prompt an important debate this weekend and to reflect on the movement’s strategy.

“We’ve made it clear we don’t want this to be a student strike based in Montreal,” Godbout said in an interview. “It’s not a question of suspending the strike, it’s a question of long-term strategy. We want to build a strong social movement across society that will make the government back down.”

She said the executive will continue to support its members with whatever decisions they make regarding the strike or other actions to counter austerity and acknowledged it will likely lead to a “heated debate” this weekend.

The burgeoning student mobilization suffered another blow on Tuesday when the Université du Québec à Montréal decided to get tough and went to court to seek an injunction that would prevent protesters from blocking school entrances.

The move follows a statement by university officials who pledged to take all measures to ensure access to its classrooms after the school was forced to cancel classes because striking students were blocking access to the institution’s buildings on Monday.

However, media relations director Jenny Desrochers said the university couldn’t comment on a matter that is before the courts, and she didn’t know when there might be a ruling about the request.

Also, professors at UQAM have reportedly voted in favour of two strike days. According to economics professor Jean-Denis Garon, the vote passed by a small margin of 173 for and 169 against, with one abstention.

He said the first day of strike would take place Thursday while the other had yet to be determined.

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